Carly Owens Weiss

The Boys Will Get Hungry if They See Fruit

November 9 – December 24, 2024

The clavicle and breasts of a headless figure with black fabric and a broken stand of pearls around the neck

Carly Owens Weiss

Broken Strand, 2024

Oil on canvas

20h x 18w x 3/4d in
50.80h x 45.72w x 1.91d cm

CW_031

Soft hand beaded sculpture of a cross section of a half rotten apple

Carly Owens Weiss

Bad Apple, 2024

hand embroidered soft sculpture

10h x 9 1/2w x 1d in
25.40h x 24.13w x 2.54d cm

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black ceramic sculpture of a pear

Carly Owens Weiss

Black Pear, 2024

Ceramic

7h x 6w x 6d in
17.78h x 15.24w x 15.24d cm

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soft beaded sculpture of a vintage hand mirror (brown, gold and silver beads)

Carly Owens Weiss

Mirroring, 2024

hand embroidered soft sculpture

14h x 8w x 1d in
35.56h x 20.32w x 2.54d cm

CW_028

two beaded taper candle sticks in found silver holders

Carly Owens Weiss

Deux, 2024

hand embroidered soft sculpture

10 1/2h x 7 1/2w x 4d in
26.67h x 19.05w x 10.16d cm

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beaded soft sculpture of a sharp knife

Carly Owens Weiss

Soft Sharp Object #1, 2024

hand embroidered soft sculpture

18h x 3w x 1 1/2d in
45.72h x 7.62w x 3.81d cm

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Beaded soft sculpture of a white, yellow and green daisy. A small fly sits in the center

Carly Owens Weiss

Daisy, 2024

Hand embroidered soft sculpture

16h x 8w x 1/2d in
40.64h x 20.32w x 1.27d cm

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A dark blue pleated curtain falls just above the bare buttocks of a figure.

Carly Owens Weiss

The Teaser for a Big Reveal, 2024

Oil on canvas

24h x 18w x 1 1/2d in
60.96h x 45.72w x 3.81d cm

CW_018

The side profile of a young woman's chin and neck, a red curtain acts like hair and hides all facial features

Carly Owens Weiss

Shroud, 2024

Oil on canvas

24h x 18w x 1 1/2d in
60.96h x 45.72w x 3.81d cm

CW_019

a disconnected email hand with long nails slips under a red curtain to feel a pearl on the floor

Carly Owens Weiss

The Continual Reflection of Possible Regret, 2024

Oil on canvas

22h x 28w x 3/4d in
55.88h x 71.12w x 1.91d cm

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A green stalk like plant centrally located on the canvas sits in front of a cloud filled blue sky

Carly Owens Weiss

Acantho I, 2024

Oil on canvas

10h x 8w in
25.40h x 20.32w cm

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a green stalk sprouting from the earth sits in front of a cloud filled blue sky

Carly Owens Weiss

Acantho II, 2024

Oil on canvas

10h x 8w x 1 1/2d in
25.40h x 20.32w x 3.81d cm

CW_022

A headless bare chest of a female with a single green plant stalk. The nipples are scovered by an open red cloak

Carly Owens Weiss

Untitled, 2024

Oil on canvas

20h x 18w x 1 1/2d in
50.80h x 45.72w x 3.81d cm

CW_023

A black and white study of a pear

Carly Owens Weiss

Peak Ripeness, 2024

Oil on paper

12h x 9w in
30.48h x 22.86w cm

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A ripe green pear sits on a brown surface with multiple water droplets. The image is fills the picture plane, as if bursting from the edges of the canvas.

Carly Owens Weiss

Baroque, 2024

Oil on canvas

24h x 20w x 1 1/2d in
60.96h x 50.80w x 3.81d cm

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A female disconnected hand comes from the top left of the image to balance a ripe green pear that sits on the edge of a red table

Carly Owens Weiss

On the Verge, 2024

Oil on canvas

40h x 30w x 1 1/2d in
101.60h x 76.20w x 3.81d cm

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a bright red apple sits on a table with a blue cloud filled sky in the background. There is a single bite taken out of the left side

Carly Owens Weiss

Bad Apple, 2024

Oil on canvas

12h x 12w x 1 1/2d in
30.48h x 30.48w x 3.81d cm

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Still life of a single ripe peach with water droplets

Carly Owens Weiss

Full to Bursting, 2024

Oil on canvas

12h x 12w x 1 1/2d in
30.48h x 30.48w x 3.81d cm

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Diptych of two nude breasts against a cloudy blue sky. Daisy's cover the nipples.

Carly Owens Weiss

Double Portrait (Diptych), 2024

Oil on canvas

24 x 20 inches each

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Side profile of a woman's ear with a pearl

Carly Owens Weiss

The Sweet Sound of Chaste Words, 2024

Oil on canvas

10h x 8w x 1 1/2d in
25.40h x 20.32w x 3.81d cm

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A woman's bare chest surrounded by a read robe (covering her breasts). There is also a white taper candle standing in her cleavage

Carly Owens Weiss

Vigil, 2024

Oil on canvas

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

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A red theater curtain parted  by two pointy breats

Carly Owens Weiss

Curtain Call, 2023

Oil on canvas

30h x 24w x 1 1/2d in
76.20h x 60.96w x 3.81d cm

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The side profile is a bare breast, a read curtain and a strand of pearls. From the left side of the picture, the hand of a female pinches the nipple

Carly Owens Weiss

Revelatio, 2023

Oil on canvas

18h x 24w x 1 1/2d in
45.72h x 60.96w x 3.81d cm

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A ripe green pear with two puncture marks which are leaking juices.

Carly Owens Weiss

Floweth, 2024

Oil on canvas

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

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a feminine hand with sharp nails holds a lemon in her palm with two puncture marks, leaking juice

Carly Owens Weiss

Expulsion, 2024

Oil on canvas

11h x 14w x 1 1/2d in
27.94h x 35.56w x 3.81d cm

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A white bowl of ripe peaches and pearls sits on a brown surface, there is a sharp knife slicing through the flesh of one of the peaches and stands up to the right corner

Carly Owens Weiss

I've Adventured it and Found Nothing But Sugar and Violence, 2024

Oil on canvas

36h x 36w x 1 1/2d in
91.44h x 91.44w x 3.81d cm

CW_012

Press Release

Tracey Morgan Gallery is pleased to present The Boys Will Get Hungry if They See Fruit, an exhibition of new paintings and soft sculptures by multidisciplinary artist Carly Owens Weiss. This is Weiss’ first solo exhibition with the gallery. A reception for the artist will be held Friday, November 15 from 6-8PM.

In this body of work, Owens Weiss wrestles with selfhood and interiority through indirect means. She uses symbolism to find the human through objects and explores the relationship between these objects and the body. The artist also reinterprets symbols present within classical antiquity and leans into their inherent dualities. The pearl can be virtuous and sinister, curtains can reveal and conceal, fruit can be sacred and taboo, reflections mirror and distort reality. Elements of pleasure and sensuality are contrasted with ephemeral moments of tension and suspense.

A societal gaze is implied within the work and the artist creates imagery based upon the physical and psychological effects of such gaze. In works with explicit human habitation, the body is never presented in its entirety and is often closely cropped. This compression and fragmentation create an ambiguity, leaving room for divergent narratives. The work alludes that there is more to the story beyond the picture plane and suggests that what is occluded or veiled is as much of a protagonist as what is depicted. The work exists in a gray space, living somewhere between liberation and shame, truth and deception, fantasy and reality.

Owens Weiss states: “As I draw nearer to entering my thirties, the experience of living in my own body as it ages and the changes I feel within it have greatly influenced my current work. In my practice, I consider the archetypal depictions of women presented in male dominated figuration throughout history and how this continues to influence societal expectations today. Through my pieces, I aim to recontextualize perceptions of womanhood and exert my own influence over imagery within the art historical canon to instill a sense of empowerment and autonomy. Through this process I am learning to harness my own power in a reality where I often feel like I have none.”

Carly Owens Weiss is a multidisciplinary artist based in Colorado. As an artist, she is interested in the violence of contrasts and navigating the feelings that arise when the familiar or mundane is juxtaposed with something unusual or irrational. The tensions between comedy and tragedy, femininity and masculinity and seduction and repulsion greatly inform her work. In her pieces, Owens Weiss draws parallels between objects, the body and the experiences lived within it to create contemporary vanitas imagery. Often her work depicts temporal moments, leaving the viewer in a state of stillness and anticipation of what has either passed or is yet to come. The investigation of the surface is paramount to her practice. Her pieces are rendered “beautifully,” momentarily distracting the viewer from the dark complexities that lie beneath the surface. This distraction is, in part, to make the viewer forget our fundamental realities and relish in an aesthetic pleasure, which eventually and inevitably becomes interrupted. Ultimately, she is confronting contemporary issues of womanhood and expectations of gender through a personal and symbolic lens.